


take my hand (in the middle of a crisis)

by wilsonrogers (hanbrough)



Series: post-endgame samsteve fics [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Fix-It of Sorts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 19:58:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18676426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanbrough/pseuds/wilsonrogers
Summary: three times steve has to look at his compass to see the person he loves, and one time he doesn't have to.





	take my hand (in the middle of a crisis)

**Author's Note:**

> based on this tweet, alongside my general dissatisfaction with steve's character motivations: https://twitter.com/LGBTAEHYNGS/status/1071291175129120774
> 
> it's ridiculous that that compass still has peggy's picture in it, okay???? the avengers are literally about to go fight thanos to bring back the people he dusted, and steve's dumbass is still looking at a picture of a woman who had canonically moved on with her life and died of natural causes??? it really makes steve's priorities look wack. also i'm just bitter in general that we didn't really get to see steve grieve sam and bucky. also also, we don't talk about steve's trash ending. not in this household!
> 
> anyways, i hope y'all enjoy! 1/3 of the moments did not actually happen in the movie, so i made it up bc it didn't seem right to do a 2+1 fic. title is from feel good by illenium, daya and gryffin. it doesn't really make sense in the context of the fic but i was listening to it as i wrote and it reminds me of samsteve :^)

1.  
Firmly strapped into the spaceship, they're ready to go find Thanos. After months of nothing, it’s a start. Steve fights the rising desperation in his chest - this has to work. It _has_ to.

“This is gonna work, Steve,” Natasha says from beside him, as if she’s heard his thoughts. He knows she’s trying her best to cover up her own fear and uncertainty.

Steve flicks open his compass for the upteenth time, and there it is, a picture that Sam had given to him for their anniversary - eyes bright, smile wide. He doesn’t know why he keeps playing with it, as if maybe the real Sam would return right in front of his eyes if he looks at it for long enough. Sam, beautiful, smart, brave, Sam. Sam, who had never doubted him for a second, even when everyone else did. Sam, who had died all alone.

Steve puts it away - a mission is impending. “I know it will. Because I don’t know what I’m gonna do if it doesn’t.”

2.  
It feels like a miracle when Scott Lang from seven years ago shows up out of nowhere, with his explanation of quantum physics and talk of a time heist.

“Hope! She’s my, um...she was...she was my...she was supposed to pull me out.” Scott’s demeanor visibly changes when he brings up this Hope woman, and Steve knows that feeling all too well - of losing your partner, and not knowing where they went, and the devastation of not being able to do anything about it.

Afterwards, his hand unconsciously reaches for the compass, and for the first time in five years, he lets himself hope.

3.  
“I could do this all day,” the 2012 version of him says, and it would be funny if they weren’t on borrowed time - literally.

“Yeah, I know,” Steve mumbles, and they continue to fight, tumbling off the glass walkway and onto the ground below. Grimacing in pain at the impact, his hand slips, and the open compass slides across the floor.

Steve watches as his old self looks at the compass, brows furrowed in confusion. He knows he recognizes the compass, but not the person in the picture. 2012 him hadn’t met Sam yet, he realizes, hadn’t yet felt the joy of loving someone who understood him, someone who would never leave his side.

“Where did you get this?” 2012 him asks, with desperation and pain in his eyes. Steve runs for him.

“Bucky...is alive,” he chokes out as his former self has him in a chokehold, and Steve uses the moment of confusion to knock himself unconscious with Loki’s staff.

He feels genuinely sorry that he has to leave his old self behind. There are so many things that _that_ Steve doesn’t know yet, won’t know for many years to come.

Right now, he needs to leave his past, in order to save his future.

+1  
Steve stumbles. _I don’t know if I can do this anymore_ , he thinks, only for the thought to be immediately shut down. Bucky and Sam flash into his mind; God, how could he ever stop fighting for them?

There’s a crackle of radio static, and for a brief moment Steve wonders if he’s been so messed up from battle that now his own ears are deceiving him.

“Cap, it’s Sam, can you hear me?” The sound comes again, and as Steve crosses the rubble, his hand instinctively flits to his earpiece.

“On your left.” and all of a sudden, life has color again, even though the battlefield could not be more devoid of it. A portal opens, and he turns to see T’Challa, Okoye, and Shuri slowly walk out. T’Challa, who had so generously welcomed them to his country half a decade ago, and his sister,  _alive_.

T’Challa nods at him when the most glorious thing happens, and Steve can’t tear his eyes away from the sky as a familiar set of wings shoots out of the portal, spinning around as tens, hundreds, thousands of other portals open with the fallen and the living, ready to fight.

When it’s all over, Steve knows he will hug Sam so tightly and never let go. He had lost the love of his life, and he knows that this time, he won’t take his second chance for granted again.

But there’s still a battle to wage, and a Thanos to defeat. As the Avengers await his call, Steve catches Sam’s eye, and smiles.

“Assemble.”


End file.
